Antarctica

Overview

Antarctica is a truly amazing continent in every way. It is the highest, coldest, driest, and least inhabitated continent on Earth. However, some creatures manage to survive naturally here, perhaps most noticeably the penguin but also seals and sea lions live on its land and in the Southern Ocean. Its landscape is unique and unforgiving, the entire land mass is covered in a huge ice cap that contains 70% of the world's fresh water, from this extends huge ice shelves out in to the sea which will occasionally drop huge blocks of ice in to the surrounding waters.

Great adventurers where attracted by the opportunity for exploration and the challenges it supplied. These early explorers produced stories of great heroism and many of the continents regions and features have been named after them. During these times territoral claims were made to areas of the continent by many countries, for example Britain's claim British Antarctic territories, which is the oldest, intersects with claims by other countries. However a multinational research program lead to the establishment of the antarctic treaty, which agreed that all sovreignty disputes should be set aside and the continent should be "a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science".

This treaty is still in place and the people who live out there are generally in goverment maintained research stations. Tourism has started to appear in this continent, and many trips are run from, South America and New Zealand. Most visits are from cruises, but flights across the continent are possible,...more

History

Speculation over the existence of a "southern land" was not confirmed until the early 1820s when British and American commercial operators and British and Russian national expeditions began exploring the Antarctic Peninsula region and other areas south of the Antarctic Circle. Not until 1840 was it established that Antarctica was indeed a continent and not just a group of islands. Several exploration "firsts" were achieved in the early 20th century. Following World War II, there was an upsurge in scientific research on the continent. A number of countries have set up year-round research stations on Antarctica. Seven have made territorial claims, but not all countries recognize these claims. In order to form a legal framework for the activities of nations on the continent, an Antarctic Treaty was negotiated that neither denies nor gives recognition to existing territorial claims; signed in 1959, it entered into force in 1961.